Author: Loree Burns

Posted on

Cybils 2008

Nominations for the 2008 Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (affectionately known as the Cybils) are open until October 15. So, if you haven’t already, get on over to the Cybils website and nominate a book. Nominated books must be published in the 2008 calendar year, and can represent any one of the following categories (clicking on the link will bring you directly to the relevant nomination page at the Cybils website):

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Fiction Picture Books

Graphic Novels

Middle Grade Fiction

Nonfiction: Middle Grade & Young Adult

Nonfiction: Picture Books

Poetry

Young Adult Fiction

Easy Readers

I was a proud Cybils panelist back in 2006; our Nonfiction: Middle Grade & YA top five list totally rocked.

Last year I was even prouder to see TRACKING TRASH nominated in that same category; sharing a list with names like Kathleen Krull, Peter Sis, Adrian Dingle, Ibtisam Barakat, Eve Drobot and Russell Freedman was quite a thrill.

What titles will take home top Cybils honors this year? I have my eyes on a few favorites; if you have thoughts on the matter, you only have until October 15 to make them known. Get on over there and nominate a book!

 

Posted on

A Natural Public Service Announcement

::rubbing my hands together in glee::

The boy with the head cold has gotten the blogging bug! He spent time this afternoon creating still more content for my blog. We are both fans of THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD (see this previous post), so we came up with a little public service announcement to share.

If you live in the right part of the country for it, you can go outside and look for this bird, a close relative of the Ivory-bill. They are an incredible sight … look a little like this:


© Benjamin Griffin Burns

 

Posted on

Champlain and the Silent One

CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE
By Kate Messner
North Country Books, 2008

Category: Middle Grade Historical Fiction

What happens when a head cold keeps you home from school and your mother has a deadline to meet? You get put to work, that’s what…

It’s not all bad. First the dear boy with the head cold was given a chance to thumb through my To Read pile. At the top was my crispy new copy of Kate Messner’s CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE; he got to be the first Burns to read it. But then he couldn’t stop talking about it. Seriously, he was at my elbow talking about Iroquois and Innu tribes and alliances and battles and, well, I wasn’t getting much done. So I heard him out one last time, and then I set him to work. Here’s the fan letter he wrote to Kate:

Dear Mrs. Messner,
Your book Champlain and the Silent One is awesome! My mom got it in the mail yesterday and let me read it. (I finished it this morning.) I liked how it always had more action or drama on the next page! You do a good job of keeping the story lively and fun instead of droning on and on.

Hope you keep writing,

You heard it here first. Kate Messner never drones on and on … and her new book is awesome!

 

Posted on

Especially for Nonfiction Writers

I think of this blog as a place for me to interact with readers–middle-graders who have read my book(s), or their parents and teachers. Most of my posts have that audience in mind.But, in fact, many regular readers of this blog are writing friends. And today I have a post expressly for them. The links below will be particularly interesting, I think, to writers of nonfiction for children.

Firstly, Marc Aronson at Nonfiction Matters is, once again, encouraging those of us who write for young people to consider digital media as a tool in our work. Check out this post and jump on into the conversation.

Secondly, Jennifer Armstrong at Interesting Nonfiction for Kids (I.N.K.) has started a conversation about books that encourage readers to get outside and explore. You can read the post here.

I’m interested in how these two posts work together. How can we writers–especially those of us who write about science and nature–embrace digital media and encourage kids to leave that media behind at the same time? It is a conundrum of epic proportions. At least to me.

What do you think?

 

Posted on

The Race to Save the Lord God Bird

THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD
By Phillip Hoose
Melanie Kroupa Books, 2004

Category: Knowledge for middle-grade readers

“There is probably more passion, sadness, villainy, heroism and sheer suspense in this account of the decline of the ivory-billed woodpecker than in any other book, of any genre, destined for young readers’ shelves this year…a magnificent book, and not just for kids.”
—Washington Post Book World

I heartily concur with these thoughts, though I would take out the phrase ‘this year’ … THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD is one of the greatest nonfiction books I’ve read ever. Hoose pulls reader into the life, times, and probable extinction of one of the most revered birds of all time, the Ivory-billed woodpecker. He does it in fine style and while at the same time planting the delicate seeds of a conservation ethic. I don’t think you can read this book and not blush at the audacity of mankind, or bristle at the idea that this bird’s greatest enemy was … is … us.

As you probably know, an Ivory-bill was sighted again in 2004 and a small population appears to exist in the United States. When you have finished reading THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD, you can rejoice at The Nature Conservancy’s Ivory-billed Woodpecker site.

 

Posted on

Beelining, An Addendum

Today I interviewed two experienced monarch-taggers about their work; in the process I stumbled on a useful method for finding wild beehives. It is much easier than the process I outlined yesterday:

1. Visit your local Audubon Sanctuary (I happened to be at this one today);

2. Ask the staff naturalist if she knows of any feral hives on the property;

3. Follow her directions to the tree.


© Loree Griffin Burns

I don’t actually know if this is a bee tree. I watched the holes for ten or fifteen minutes and didn’t see any bees enter or exit … but the temperature was hovering just under fifty degrees outside, which is cold for flying. Maybe the bees were huddled up inside?

::rubbing hands and remembering this commercial::

It will be fun to find out!

 

Posted on

Beelining


© Ellen Harasimowicz

THE HIVE DETECTIVES manuscript is shaping up. Last night—after hours and hours and hours and hours of polishing—I gave my tired elbows a rest and played with the Endmatter. For eighteen months I have compiled lists of bee books, movies, and websites that might interest my readers and finally I sifted through them in search of the goodies I’d most like to share in the back of the book.

My favorite treat comes from the fine folks at The Feral Bee Project, who are teaching people how to beeline in hopes that they will use the knowledge to locate and report feral bee colonies.

What the heck is beelining? Well, I’m glad you asked, because there won’t be enough room to explain it all in the Endmatter and it’s pretty cool stuff:

1. Collect a few bees in a box;

2. Let them fill up on honey (bees with a full honey stomach will head directly back to the nest to unload the goods);

3. Release a single bee and take note of your location and the precise direction the bee flies (its beeline);

4. Walk to a new location several yards from the first release site and let a second bee loose, noting your new location and the new beeline;

5. Since both bees are likely heading to the same hive, the spot where their beelines intersect will be the location of their nest … go find it!

Why beeline? I’m glad you asked that, too, because I really only have room to list the link and, well, you should know more:

1. Old-timers beelined in order to find a good source of yummy wild honey;

2. These days citizen scientists hope that finding colonies in the wild will help protect honey bees.

You see, feral honey bees, like all pollinators, have been in a pretty serious decline recently. If colonies are actually making it in the wild, they may represent survivor colonies that have figured out a way to overcome pesticide exposure, habitat destruction, viral infections, invertebrate pests and Colony Collapse Disorder. These super bees are worth finding and studying!

Okay, back to polishing. But before I leave the Endmatter completely, I’ll just dowload instructions on how to build this beeline box. I sense a field trip in the making …

 

Posted on

Visualization Challenge

The National Science Foundation and Science magazine sponsored the sixth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge this year, and the winners have been compiled in this slideshow.

Are those not AMAZING?

What? You didn’t look? Go back. Go back this minute and click on that link. This minute.

Okay. I can’t make you. But you are missing photographs of a diatom forest and toothy squid suckers, an incredible illustration of the human circulatory system, an eye-popping vision of Alice’s Wonderland (complete with Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse beetles sipping tea from a butterfly wing table … in a field of chrystallized vitamin C), a thought-provoking representation of the Bible, and interactive/non-interactive media presentations that let you see things human eyes will never see. You really should give it a look.

The science connections here make me happy, but there are children’s literature connections that I find equally thrilling:

Firstly, the Mad Hatter’s Tea infographic uses micrographs by scientist and children’s book creator Dennis Kunkel. Kunkel has several great books to his name already—including HIDDEN WORLDS (a “Scientists in the Field” book written by Stephen Kramer), MOSQUITO BITE! and SNEEZE! (both written by Alexandra Siy)—and has plans to develop a series of children’s books based on this image. Should they come to pass, these books have no choice but to bend genres.

Secondly, Marc Aronson has written on his SLJ blog, Nonfiction Matters, about digital media and how it can—and does—affect the way new generations of kids absorb information and, by definition, how new generations of authors and illustrators must present information to them. I think these images are a concrete example of what Marc means when he says “cross-media big thinking”. A picture no longer represents a mere thousand words … it coalesces decades of scientific study, popular culture and technological breakthrough into a single digital learning experience!

Now will you look at that slideshow?

 

Posted on

Celebrating My Freedom to Read

It’s the last week of September, and you know what that means …


Actually, click here.

From now until Saturday, October 4 the American Library Association and a slew of other bibliophilic organizations are celebrating books and our right to read them. I’m celebrating by re-reading an old favorite, number 23 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee.

I’m also celebrating by re-running banned book blog posts from the past couple years. These first two were written with the help of my sons, who are avid readers of banned books:

In this first rerun, one of my son’s talked to me about Harry Potter books (number one on the Top 100 list above).

In the second rerun, my other son shared his thoughts on Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series (number ten on the Top 100 list above).

How will you be celebrating your freedom to read this week?

 

Posted on

Support Your Indies!

indiebound

On Saturday I attended the first New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Salon. It was a fabulous event and I have to start my recap by encouraging published New England SCBWI members to consider attending future Salons. (Find more information here.)

The forty writers and illustrators in attendance were treated to an overview of “Working with Independent Booksellers” by Carol Stoltz of Porter Square Books, Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith and Carol Chittendon of Eight Cousins Bookstore.

These women are passionate about books and experienced in the art of connecting books to readers in their community. They freely shared their wisdom with us and I left inspired to find more ways to support independent booksellers … even though I live in an area without one.

So, how can we writers and readers support independent booksellers and other retailers in our communities? It’s actually pretty easy, thanks to IndieBound. Check out this IndieBound Declaration:

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for individuals to denounce the corporate bands which threaten to homogenize our cities and our souls, we must celebrate the powers that make us unique and declare the causes which compel us to remain independent.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all stores are not created equal, that some are endowed by their owners, their staff, and their communities with certain incomparable heights, that among these are Personality, Purpose and Passion. The history of the present indies is a history of experiences and excitement, which we will continue to establish as we set our sights on a more unconstrained state. To prove this, let’s bring each other along and submit our own experiences to an unchained world.

We, therefore, the Kindred Spirits of IndieBound, in the name of our convictions, do publish and declare that these united minds are, and darn well ought to be, Free Thinkers and Independent Souls. That we are linked by the passions that differentiate us. That we seek out soul mates to share our excitement. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the strength of our identities, we respectively and mutually pledge to lead the way as we all declare that we are IndieBound!

As writers, we can support this movement by becoming IndieBound Affiliates (much like you can with other online bookstores) and encouraging our readers to buy our books through local, independent bookstores. You can add an IndieBound button to your website and give readers the option to support their own local booksellers at the same time that they support you. I plan to do that as soon as humanly possible. (Read: As soon as my web guy can do it!)

In the meantime, if you need a copy of TRACKING TRASH, just click the link below. You’ll be taken to an IndieBound webpage; simply punch in your zipcode and you are hooked up with a bookstore near you that carries my book. Go ahead, test it out!

BUY TRACKING TRASH NOW!